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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5452714" data-attributes="member: 42582">My comment about the rules not explaining how the game is to be played aren't meant to suggest that those with ENworld postcounts in the 1000s can't work it out. I assume you guys are familiar with <a href="http://critical-hits.com/2008/03/05/dd-xp-interview-sara-girard-rob-heinsoo/" target="_blank">the indie games that influenced these aspects of 4e's design</a>.But a lot of RPGers probably are not.And it's not as if WotC can't write these sorts of rules - Worlds and Monsters has pages and pages telling a GM what sort of play points of light will support, how it can be used, how the different fantasy elements - fey, demons, undead etc - can be used to create a fantasy game experience using the &quot;just in time&quot; techniques that 4e's situation-based design works well with.But for some reason they chose not to include this sort of stuff in the DMG. The DMG has a lot of advice on the metagame of building combat encounters, but almost none on the metagame of building and running a skill challenge (there are general guidelines, but no almost no details at all), of designing and resolving a non-railroaded scenario, etc.Well flavour obviously is in the eye of the beholder. But after reading Worlds and Monsters I was very keen to run a points-of-light game. I find it well-designed for running the sort of game I want to run - one in which there is a loose framework to inject the &quot;vibe&quot;/&quot;atmosphere&quot; described by Mercurius in the OP, but in whicht the details are built up over the course of play.I also found the monster lore in the MM was good for this - a bit more than is typical in a Rolemaster or Runequest monster entry, about the same as an AD&amp;D 1st edition monster entry, and less than the 2nd ed entries which I found a bit over-the-top, and tending to answer all the questions in advance of play rather than leaving them to be answered during play.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5452714, member: 42582"] My comment about the rules not explaining how the game is to be played aren't meant to suggest that those with ENworld postcounts in the 1000s can't work it out. I assume you guys are familiar with [url=http://critical-hits.com/2008/03/05/dd-xp-interview-sara-girard-rob-heinsoo/]the indie games that influenced these aspects of 4e's design[/url]. But a lot of RPGers probably are not. And it's not as if WotC [I]can't[/I] write these sorts of rules - Worlds and Monsters has pages and pages telling a GM what sort of play points of light will support, how it can be used, how the different fantasy elements - fey, demons, undead etc - can be used to create a fantasy game experience using the "just in time" techniques that 4e's situation-based design works well with. But for some reason they chose not to include this sort of stuff in the DMG. The DMG has a lot of advice on the metagame of building combat encounters, but almost none on the metagame of building and running a skill challenge (there are general guidelines, but no almost no details at all), of designing and resolving a non-railroaded scenario, etc. Well flavour obviously is in the eye of the beholder. But after reading Worlds and Monsters I was very keen to run a points-of-light game. I find it well-designed for running the sort of game I want to run - one in which there is a loose framework to inject the "vibe"/"atmosphere" described by Mercurius in the OP, but in whicht the details are built up over the course of play. I also found the monster lore in the MM was good for this - a bit more than is typical in a Rolemaster or Runequest monster entry, about the same as an AD&D 1st edition monster entry, and less than the 2nd ed entries which I found a bit over-the-top, and tending to answer all the questions in advance of play rather than leaving them to be answered during play. [/QUOTE]

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